Duke student convicted using indirect-double hearsay

Having completed her report, Irvine didn’t testify before the hearing—denying McLeod an opportunity to cross-examine her about her investigative techniques; and, perhaps more important, denying McLeod an opportunity to ask her follow-up questions about the witnesses that she did interview. Nor did most of the students interviewed by Irvine testify at the hearing. As a result, McLeod’s attorneys point out, the student was convicted on the basis of “indirect double-hearsay” evidence. This double-hearsay material included an anonymous witness who said that he or she saw the accuser incapacitated on the night of the incident. In a remarkable coincidence, that anonymous witness made his or her presence known to Irvine on the same day that Irvine asked the accuser about her violation of a mutual no-contact order between the accuser and McLeod.

About that no-contact order: The accuser violated it by attending a party at McLeod’s residence. She had been told—by Sheila Broderick of the Duke Women’s Center, allegedly—that the accuser was allowed to violate the no-contact order.